How Much Do You Need To Know?
I can remember when first starting out how confident I felt when designing my own website. I really just had to follow a few simple rules and I was well on my way. After all, how hard can this be if all I really need is to “paint by numbers” and fill in the blanks of the following code:
<html>
<head>My New Website</head>
<body>
How Hard Can This Be!
</body>
</html>
Now just hit publish and I’m Online …… how cool is that !!!
It’s when I tried to throw in a little “Pixie Dust” that I really started to see the challenge …… and trouble. I’ve never really had to seek help with whatever it is that I’m working on as I see things really well …… at least technically speaking when it comes to web design.
The further I went down the rabbit hole, the better things developed …… which was kinda strange for me anyway.
Things cleared up a bit when I finally started to program in “PHP”. Yes, I learned that I was not the creators gift to the Internet. I’ve had my share of challenges with HTML, CSS and Javascript, however, working at it for a bit and things usually resolved themselves, even at the very high-end of things. With “PHP” nothing works for me! I just can’t seem to see things clearly. Like most, I understand well enough, yet at the high-end, things don’t develop like they should in my mind’s eye.
Everywhere you go, and I do mean everywhere, you will find the same thing explaining your new desire in learning “PHP” as a real walk in the park …… unlike “C” or say “C-#”. Get this …… I understand that it is developed as a computer language to be “User ( or rather ) Programmer Friendly” for the “Lay-Person”, by its designers and maintainers. Whatever !!!
It will be interesting to see how long it takes for things to clear-up for me!
Remember now, that I’m at the high-end of things with my “PHP”. I’m trying to wrap my mind around conceptual programming. In other words I want to “HASH” several variables wrapped in “HTML” and “CSS” and cross-reference those variables within a relational database and root file system, both “server-side” and “client-side”, at the same time running multiple operations to a positive or “TRUE” result within different files, to display the output in different areas or different pages of the website. As you can see, I can explain it; I just can’t see the code clearly enough in my minds-eye to write it down!
When trying to manage your own resources, how much do you really need to know to make a go-of-it with a reasonable chance of success in web-design? That’s a pretty easy question to answer.
If you have a good grounding in HTML, CSS, Javascript and PHP, you’re good to go. You can pretty much rule the world from your monitor.
You really should have no problem writing your “HTML” and “CSS”. You might have to work a bit with “Javascript”. And with just a touch of “PHP” and “jQuery” you will do fine for the vast majority of your web design needs. As for working with “WordPress”; after a year you will have no problem what-so-ever.
If you site is large enough you might want to tackle “Hip-Hop” or “MUMPS” in your spare time. Seriously, though! There are literally dozens of computer languages that you can learn ( hit this link in your spare time: Computer Languages ), however you really only need to master the two and learn a trick or two about the others listed above to achieve your web design goals.
